THE TTALK QUOTES 

On Global Trade & Investment

 

Published Three Times a Week By

The Global Business Dialogue, Inc.

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No. 21 of 2015 

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 2015      

 

   

Filed from Portland, Oregon  

     

Click here for last Wednesday's TPA quote from Oregon Berry Packing, Inc.
GIs AND THE SAVVY CONSUMER

"I am not confused that my taco kit [was] imported from Mexico because it has sombreros on it."

Shawna Morris
March 18, 2015


CONTEXT
Last Wednesday, March 18, the Global Business Dialogue held a public discussion of GIs or geographical indications in global commerce.  The event at the National Press Club began with four presentations: one from USTR, one from the Consortium for Common Food Names, one from the office of Congressman Reid Ribble of Wisconsin, and one from the Delegation of the European Union to the United States.  They were all excellent, and it is all but certain that one or more of them will show up as future TTALK Quotes. 

Today's quote was part of an exchange in the program's concluding question and answer session.  One memorable intervention came from an Italian diplomat in the audience.  Carlo Romeo is the Counselor for Economic, Commercial and Scientific Affairs at the Embassy of Italy in Washington.  He shared a family vignette as a way of highlighting the confusion that arises when geographical indications are not protected in the marketplace.  Upon discovering that his family was out of provolone, Mr. Romeo asked his wife to buy some.  Later, seeing some in the refrigerator, he thanked her but also questioned her closely as to whether it was real Italian provolone.

"Are you sure this is an Italian provolone?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.  "Look at the name.  It's provolone.  And there is also the Italian flag. Everything is white, red, and green."

Alas, Mr. Romeo said.  The cheese was from Wisconsin.  It was good, he said, but it was not Italian provolone.

Shawna Morris was one of the presenters.  She is the Senior Director at the Consortium for Common Food Names as well as Vice President for Trade Policy at the U.S. Dairy Export Council.   Today's featured quote was part of her response to Mr. Romeo.  "If I could touch briefly on the confusion point," she began, "my sympathies to the Italian Embassy household aside ... these products are typically labeled."   In short, she said, it is common for food products in America to use labeling suggestive of another place or a country, without suggesting at all that the product being sold was produced abroad.  "I ... think that focusing [as a complaint] on a use of linking some products to another country disregards, to a certain extent, the reality of the U.S. marketplace."

Often, she said, the very product that is said to be misleading because it has, say, an Italian flag, may also be clearly labeled as "Made in Wisconsin" or "Made from Wisconsin Milk or Wisconsin Cheese."    It was after making those points that Ms. Morris said, "I am not confused that my taco kit was imported from Mexico because it has sombreros on it."

COMMENT
When the topic is GIs, we intend to keep this comment section brief, at least for the next few entries on GIs.  In this case, we'll make just three points.

First, the EU has registered two GIs for provolone, both for Italy.  One is Provolone Del Monaco.  The other is Provolone Valpadana, a designation that covers a region from Milan to Udine in Northern Italy.  In fairness to Counselor Romeo, part of his concern was simply that, as an Italian diplomat, he wants to support Italian producers.
   
Second, another nuance to the naming of things was added by Steve Lande of Manchester Trade.  "When I picture Italian cheese," he said, "I picture a little old Italian cheese maker making it in New York."    In effect, Mr. Lande was asking, what value should be ascribed, what names allowed, for the knowledge and the skill of the artisan as distinct from his physical location.

Third, implicitly, Mr. Lande's question raised another issue.  It isn't just that America is a nation of immigrants.  From Afghanistan to China, from India to Italy, and from Mexico to Zimbabwe, today just about every country has its own diaspora.  What effect will the expansion of GIs have on the ability of those people to hold on to their heritage, their traditions?  And at what cost to their home countries? 
SOURCES & LINKS

From the Q&A is a link to an MP3 recording of the Q and A segment of GBD's March 18 event on GI.  Each of the segments was also recorded, you will find those segments at the following links: 


Remarks of George York, the USTR expert on GIs, at the GBD colloquium on March 18, 2015. 


Remarks of Shawna Morris from the Consortium for Common Food Names at the GBD session on GIs on March 18, 2015. 


Remarks of Paul Bleiberg from the Office of Rep. Reid Ribble (R-WI) at the GBD colloquium on GIs on March 18, 2015.   And, 


Remarks of Giulio Menato, Counselor for Agriculture at the EU Delegation in Washington, at the GBD colloquium on GIs on March 18, 2015.


DOOR is a link to an EU's registry for Geographical Indications.  

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